Press plate assembly



Nov. 3, 1959 Filed Feb. 26, 1957 A. BEHR'YSTOCK PRESS PLATE ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet l 1959 A. BEHRSTOCK PRESS PLATE ASSEMBLY 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 20, 1957' BY Maw United States Patent 01 PRESS PLATE ASSEMBLY Alfred Behrstock, Lincolnwood, lll., assignor to L. Behrstock & Co., Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application February 20, 1957, Serial No. 641,359

6 Claims. (Cl. 38-66) This invention relates to improvements in steampressing apparatus, particularly to improvements in the pressing heads therefor.

Usually, the pressing head of a steam presser includes an upper, pivotally mounted, hollow body which directs steam from a suitable steam source to a series of relatively widely spaced discharge ports in the bottom wall thereof. Various means have been utilized to evenly distribute the steam discharge from these discharge ports over the garment to be pressed, which means have left much to be desired. In some cases, a rather intricately shaped liner or bafiie plate was disposed closely between the discharge ports and a finely perforated outer press plate. This construction has sulfered from numerous disadvantages, among them was the expense of fabrication of the baffie plate and the occasional partial blocking of the perforations or openings of the bafiie plate by the press plate as the latter was deformed slightly inwardly as it was brought down upon the garment to be pressed. The resulting hindered or uneven steam flow, of course, adversely afiected the operation of the steam presser. The close spacing of the press plate, baflie plate and the pressing head also resulted in overheating of the press plate.

Another means previously utilized to control the distribution of steam from the pressing head discharge ports comprised a screen snugly interposed between the discharge ports and the press plate. This design also left much to be desired from the standpoint of proper baffiing of the steam to prevent the jetting of the steam against the garment being pressed, and prevention of overheating of the press plate due to the transfer of heat from the pressing head body to the press plate. The jetting of the steam against the garment being pressed was-especially objectionable when pressing garments made of synthetic fabrics, such as Orlon, nylon, Dacron and dynel, since it wrinkled and sometimes damaged the fabrics. Overheating of the press plate was also especially harmful to these synthetic fabrics.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a press plate assembly which overcomes the abovementioned disadvantages of prior press plate assembly constructions. More specifically, among the objects of the present invention are to provide a press plate assembly wherein the steam is distributed evenly over the garment being pressed as a soft, non-jetting steam blanket which is not affected by the force applied to the assembly when the pressing head is brought down upon the garment, and to provide such a press piate assembly wherein this result is obtained with a minimum of parts, and wherein the parts are of much simpler construction than press plate assemblies heretofore utilized.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a simply constructed press plate assembly wherein the press plate temperature is kept substantially below the temperature of the pressing head body to which it is connected, so that heat-sensitive synthetic fabrics can be pressed without danger of damage to the same.

, contain small, uniformly distributed transverse holes or perforations which, for the most part, are arranged out of alignment. These plates may be fabricated from the same perforated sheet metal stock by stamping and forming the metal pieces made therefrom so that the perforations extend in parallel rows which, respectively, make different angles with the longitudinal axes thereof.

In the space between these perforated plates, a fine mesh screen is disposed preferably in spaced relationship with both of the perforated plates. The screen is secured at its periphery to the perimeters of the perforated plates and is inwardly bowed for substantially its full length to a degree intermediate the bowing of the perforated plates, to provide the above-mentioned spac-j ing. The combination of the fine mesh screen disposed between and in spaced relationship with a pair of transverse perforated plates whose perforations are out of alignment produces a soft, non-jetting blanket of steam over the garment being pressed which is particularly de sirable in the pressing of synthetic, heat-sensitive fabrics where a jetting action of the steam creates wrinkles and sometimes damages the fabrics. This construction is in substantial contra-distinction to the use of a single screen snugly positioned between the discharge ports of a pressing head and a press plate, or the close, superposition of a liner or baffie plate and a press plate as was heretofore utilized. The spacing between the perforated plates substantially reduces the transfer of heat from the very hot pressing head to the bottom press plate to prevent the overheating of the press plate. Moreover, the spacing enables a better bafiling and steam dispersing action which is further substantially enhanced by the screen loosely positioned within this space.

A further substantial reduction in the temperature of the press plate is obtained by fabricating the fine mesh screen from a metal, preferably Monel metal, which has relatively poor heat-retentive qualities relative, for example, to aluminum or copper, which heretofore have been utilized for fine mesh screens in press plate assemblies. Although Monel metal press plates have heretofore been used, the use of a fine mesh Monel metal screen is, to my knowledge, novel. The results achieved by utilizing a Monel metal screen spaced from a press plate made of aluminum or similar material achieves a reduction of press plate temperature which cannot be sides which extend along the longitudinal fianged portions of the press plate, the corners of the flanges of the various parts making up the assembly fitting closely together. Where the line mesh screen is flexible, the abovementioned inwardly bowed shape thereof is obtained by utilizing a greater lengthof screen material between the flanged sides thereof than the spacing between the longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate and flexing the flanged sides of the screen to enable the placement thereof within the corresponding longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate.-

The perforated plates and the screen are held together by providing flap extensions on the longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate which are bent snugly over the longitudinal flanged portions of the fine mesh screen and the inner perforated plate, to lock the parts of the assembly together. The press plate assembly may be removably secured to the pressing head body by any one of a number of suitable means, such as by means of coil spring bands secured to the flanged portions of the press plate and stretched over the top of the pressing head body.

Other objects, advantages and features of the invention will become apparent upon making reference to specification to follow, the claims and the drawings wherein: v

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a, pressing head body fitted with the press plate assembly of the present invention;

' Fig. 2 is a top, partly broken away view of the press plate assembly in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is'an enlarged transverse sectional view through the press assembly of Fig. 2, taken along section line 3-'-3 therein;

Fig. 4 is a still further enlarged fragmentary view of a portion of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is an enlarged, fragmentary, longitudinal section at the end of the press plate assembly, taken along section line 5- 5 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 6 is an exploded view of the pre-formed parts making up the press plate assembly of the invention, before the locking flap extensions of the press plate have been bent over the flanges of the other parts of the assembly; and 1 Fig. 7 is a fragmentary, sectional view of the pressing head body and attached press plate assembly shown in Fig. l.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 7, the press plate assembly of the invention generally indicated by reference numeral 2 is applied over the bottom of a pressing head body 4, which may be a pressing head body of conventional construction hinged for pivotal movement about an axis extending along one of its longitudinal edges and having a handle 6 to be grasped by the operator and pulled down to bring the press plate assembly against a garment, not shown, resting upon a padded support base constructed in the usual manner. As shown in Fig. 7, the pressing head body 4 is provided with a number of relatively widely spaced steam discharge ports 8 through which superheated steam is discharged upon the upper or inner surface of the press plate assembly 2. The steam, for example, may be discharged through these ports at a pressure of from 80 to 100 pounds per square inch and the temperature of the bottom surface of the pressing head body. may be in the neighborhood of 350 F.

The press plate assembly 2 of the present invention is constructed in a manner so that the steam jetting from the discharge ports 8 is handled by the press plate assembly 2 in such a manner that the steam issuing from perforations in the bottom of'the press plate assembly is a slow moving, soft, uniformly distributed blanket of steam which will not wrinkle or damage synthetic fabrics such as Orlon, Dacron, nylon or dynel. Moreover, the temperature of the bottom surface of the press plate assembly is substantially below the 350 F. temperature of the pressing head body, as for example, a temperaturepreferably in the neighborhood of 270 F.

In. accordance with the invention, the press plate assembly 2 comprises three simply constructed parts, namely an upper perforated plate 10 preferably of aluminum, a bottom perforated press plate 12 also preferably of aluminum and a preferably Monel metal, fine mesh screen 14 spacially interposed between the perforated plates 10 and 12. The press plate 12 has a conventional, horizontally elongated profile and is preferably inwardly dished or bowed across the entire width for the full length of the plate. A narrow peripheral flange 17 extends around the entire perimeter thereof and is corrugated or crimped at curved ends 1921 thereof to take up the excess metal when the round ended metal blank from which it is formed is bent into the rounded flanged end portions of the press plate. As shown most clearly in Fig. 6, the longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate have locking flap extensions 23 extending from the tops thereof. These flap portions are bent inwardly in the finished product to provide a down-turned locking skirt which holds the parts of the assembly together in a manner to be more fully explained hereinafter. The press plate is provided with relatively small uniformlydistributed, transverse perforations 27 covering the entire press plate. In the example illustrated in Fig.2, the perforations are in parallel rows extending'at small angles to respective lines running parallel to the longitudinal axis of the press plate. These perforations, for example, may be spaced from adjacent perforations in the same and contiguous rows inthe neighborhood of of an inch and the perforations may each have a diameter in the neighborhood of of an inch.

The bottom surface of the press plate 12 is preferably roughened in any suitable manner as by etching or the like.

The upper perforated plate 10 is, in general, shaped similarly to the press plate 12 except that it is inwardly dished or bowed across its entire width for the full lengthv thereof to a greater extent than the press plate for reasons to be explained. Moreover, it has no end flanged portions but has longitudinal flanged portions 3t]30 spaced together somewhat less than the longitudinalflanged portions of the press plate so that the former can fit snugly within the latter. The ends 32-34 of the plate 10 are rounded to fit within and contiguous to the corrugated, rounded end flanged portions 19and 21 of the press plate. The plate 10 has uniformly distributed perforations 35 extending transversely therethrough of approximately the same size and spacing as the perforations in the press plate and hence the plate 19 may be formed from the same perforated sheet metal stock as the pressing plate. However, the press plate is stamped and formed in a manner such that the perforations extend in parallel longitudinal rows which extend across the longitudinal rows or perforations in the press plate, as shown most clearly in the broken away Fig. 2, so that their respective perforations are, for the most part, out of alignment.

The fine mesh screen 14 is shaped substantially similarly to the upper perforated plate 10 and, when assembled with the plates 10 and 12 in a manner to be described, is inwardly dished or bowed across its full Width for the entire length thereof and has longitudinal flanged portions 37-37 which are spaced to fit snugly between longitudinal flanged portions of the perforated plates 10 and 12. The degree of curvature or bowing of the screen '14 is preferably intermediate the degree of howing of the plates 10 and 12. Although the screen material may not be able. to' maintain the desired degree of curvature before it is assembled with'the plates 10 and 12, the proper curvature can be maintained by virtue of the slight flex'ure applied to the screen material necessary to fitthe initially flat central portion thereof within the longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate,

For reasons to be explained more fully, the fine mesh screen 14 is preferably made of a material with poor heat-retentive qualities relative'to aluminum or copper.'

Most preferably, the screen material is made of Monel metal wire strands of a diameter of approximately .0055

inch and; 6 5=strands to the inch in one-direction and 56 strands to the mob in the other direction, although somewhat different wire and mesh sizes may be utilized without departing from the broader aspects of the inven tion.

In constructing the press plate assembly, the wire mesh screen 14 and the inner press plate are superimposed within the flanged perimeter of the press plate 12 before the locking flap extensions 23-23 of the press plate have been turned-in. After such placement of the screen 14 and the plate 10, the flap extensions 23-23 are bentinwardly to snugly sandwich the flanged portions of the screen 14 and the plate 10 between the locking skirt formed by the in-turned flap extensions and the main outer longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate. Metal eyelets 3939 are preferably secured to the ends of the resulting press plate assembly along the longitudinal axis line thereof by any suitable means such as by rivets 41-41. Widely spaced holes 43-43 are preferably drilled through the longitudinal flanged portions of the press plate assembly on each side thereof to provide four holes which receive the hooked ends 45 of coil springs 47 which form resilient bands which engage the top of the pressing head body 4, as shown in Fig. l, to retain the press plate assembly upon the pressing head body. Another coil spring 49 may extend between each of the eyelets 39-39 and the medial portion of the adjacent coil spring band 47 to hold the press plate assembly against longitudinal movement upon the pressing head body.

As shown most clearly in Fig. 3, in the completed press plate assembly the perforated plates 10 and 1'2 are appreciably spaced apart over practically their entire extent, the spacing, for example, at the longitudinal center lines thereof being approximately in the neighborhood of from to 3 16 of an inch. The fine mesh screen 14 is medially interposed between the parallel longitudinal rows of perforations in the plates 10 and 12, for the most part the perforations in these plates are out of alignment. The steam issuing from the relatively large and widely spaced discharge ports 8 in the bottom of the pressing head body 4 is thus initially broken up by the fine, uniformly spaced perforations 35 in the upper plate 10. As the steam issues from these perforations, it flows into an unobstructed space between the screen 14 and the plate 10, and the steam therefore tends to spread out evenly. The steam is again broken up but to an extremely fine extent by the screen 14 providing a substantially homogeneous steam blanket. Again, upon leaving the screen 14, another unobstructed space is met by the screen which further aids in evenly distributing the same. Although the plates 10, and perhaps to a smaller extent the screen 14, tend to slow down the velocity of steam flow from the discharge ports 8, a final and substantial reduction in speed of movement of the steam is effected by the press plate 12 by the metal between the perforations thereof which are offset, for the most part, from the holes in the plate 10. The space between the plates 10 and 12, in addition to the poor heat-retentive qualities of the fine mesh Monel metal screen 14, provides for a minimum transfer of heat from the very hot bottom wall of the pressing plate body, which may have a temperature in the order of 350 F., to the press plate '12 which makes direct contact with the garment being pressed. The temperatures of the plate 12, for example, may be 270 F. Moreover, the combination of the plates 10 and 12 with the screen 14 provides at the outlet end of the perforations of the press plate a slow moving (i.e. non-jetting) substantially homogeneous blanket of steam over the entire bottom surface of the press plate. Wrinkling and damage to synthetic fabrics are thereby avoided. Moreover, the above assembly is not sensitive to the pressing forces applied when the pressing head is brought down upon the garment being 6 pressed, as in many prior pressing head constructions. Also, the assembly is made of parts which are very inexpensive to fabricate and which will not readily be damaged or wear, even with rough handling and prolonged use. In addition, the plate assembly forms an integral unit which can be readily attached to or disconnected from a pressing head body of conventionaldesign.

It should be understood that numerous modifications may be made of the most preferred form of the invention above described without deviating from the broader aspects thereof.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a steam presser having a steam pressing head to be brought into contact with a garment resting upon a support base, the pressing head including a pressing head body having bottom steam discharge ports or passages, the improvement comprising a press plate assembly secured over said discharge ports comprising: a fine-mesh screen, a pair of appreciably spaced apart plates having steam-distributing perforations which, for the most part, are out of alignment, means fixedly supporting said fine-mesh screen within the marginal portions thereof immediately between said plates with said screen being spaced permanently from the plate furthest from said pressing head body, the latter plate being of such rigidity that the space between it and said screen is maintained during pressing contact of the press plate assembly with the garment, the combination of said finemesh screen and said spaced apart plates whose perforations are out of alignment breaking up the steam discharging from the discharge ports or passages of the pressing head body into a non-jetting, evenly distributed soft blanket of steam at the outer surface of said press plate assembly.

2. In a steam presser having a steam pressing head to be brought into contact with a garment resting upon a support base, the pressing head including a pressing head body having bottom steam discharge ports or passages, the improvement comprising a press plate assembly secured over said discharge ports comprising: a finemesh screen made of a material which is a port retainer of heat relative to aluminum, a pair of appreciably spaced apart plates having steam-distributing perforations which, for the most part, are out of alignment, means fixedly supporting said screen within the marginal portions thereof in permanent spaced relation to both of and immediately between said plates, the plate furthest from said pressing head body being of such rigidity that the space between it and the screen is maintained during pressing contact with the garment, the combination of said fine-mesh screen and said spaced apart plates whose perforations are out of alignment breaking up the steam discharging from the discharge ports or passages of the pressing head body into a non-jetting, evenly distribtued soft blanket of steam at the bottom surface of said press plate.

3. In a steam presser having a steam pressing head to be brought into contact with a garment resting upon a support base, the pressing head including a pressing head body having bottom steam discharge ports or passages, the improvement comprising a press plate assembly secured over said discharge ports comprising: a finemesh screen, a pair of appreciably spaced apart plates having uniformly, distributed perforations extending transversely therethrough which for the most part are out of alignment, one of said plates covering said discharge ports or passages and the other of said plates forming a press plate which directly contacts the garment to be pressed, means fixedly supporting said screen within the marginal portions thereof in permanent spaced relation to both of and immediately between said plates, the press plate being of such rigidity that the space between it and the screen is maintained during pressing contact with the garment, the combination of said fine-mesh screen and said spaced apart plates whose perforations are out of alignment breaking upthe steam discharging from the discharge ports or passages of the pressing head body into a nonjetting, evenly distributed soft blanket of steam at the bottom surface of said press plate.

4. In a steam presser having a steam pressing head to be brought into contact with a garment resting upon a support base, the pressing head including a pressing head body having bottom steam discharge ports or passages, the improvement comprising a press plate assembly secured over said discharge ports comprising: a perforated press plate permanently spaced from said steam discharge ports and which is to bebrought next to the garment to be pressed, a fine-mesh screen, and means fixedly supporting said screen within the marginal portions thereof in permanent spaced relation with and between said steam-discharge ports and said press plate, said press plate being of such rigidity that the spacing between it and said screen ismaintained during pressing contact with the garment, and there being a permanent space between said screen and said press plate to enable the steam to be evenly distributed and to minimize transfer of heat from the pressing head body to said press plate.

5. A press plate assembly adapted for attachment over the steam discharge ports of the pressing head of a steam pressing apparatus comprising: a bottom elongated perforated substantially rigid press plate adapted to make direct contact with the garment to be pressed, said plate having small, substantially uniformly disposed perforations extending transversely therethrough in parallel rows, said press plate having up-turned peripheral flange means, a top elongated plate fitted within the flanged press plate and adapted to cover said pressing head body discharge ports, said top plate being generally similar in size and shape to said press plate and having perforations extending transversely therethrough which are of a similar size and spacing from those of said press plate and which extend in parallel rows which angle with respect to the corresponding rows of perforations inv said press plate so that the perforations of the two plates are out of alignment eventhough they are of similar size and have a similar spacing, said top plate being provided with upstanding flanged portions fitting closely within corresponding peripheral longitudinal flange portions of said press plate and supporting the top plate within the peripheral portions thereof in spaced relation to said press plate, and a fine-mesh screen of generally the same size and shape as said perforated plates interposed immediately therebetween, said screen having longitudinal peripheral flanged portions on opposite sides thereof which fit between the corresponding longitudinal flanged portions of said perforated plates and support the screen within said peripheralrportions thereof in permanent spaced relation to said press plate, and said press plate having in-turned locking flaps extending downwardly fromthe ends of the longitudinal flanged portions thereof to snugly hold the flanged portions of said fine-mesh screen and top perforated plate against the longitudinal flanged portions of said press plate.

6. A press plate assembly adapted for attachment over the steam discharge ports of the pressing head of a steam presser comprising: a bottom elongated perforated substantially rigid press plate, said plate being inwardly transversely bowed across substantially its entire width for substantially its entire length and having small, substantially uniformly disposed perforations extending transversely therethrough, a top elongated substantially rigid plate assembled at its perimeter to the press plate at the peripheral flanged portions theerof and adapted to cover said pressing head body discharge ports, said top plate being generally similar in size and shape to said press plate and being inwardly transversely bowed across substantially its entire width for substantially its entire length to a greater extent than said press plate, the two plates being thereby appreciably spaced apart within their peripheral portions, said top plate having perforations extending transversely therethrough which are of a similar size and spacing from those of said press plate, the perforations of the two plates being out of alignment, and a fine-mesh screen of generally the same size and shape as said perforated plates and spacially interposed immediately therebetween and assembled at its periphery to the peripheral portion of said plates, said screen being transversely bowed across substantially its entire width for substantially its entire length thereof, the degree of bowing thereof being intermediate the degree of bowing of said perforated plates so that the portions of said screen within its perimeter are spaced from both of said plates.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

